Looking Back
by Fiddle-faddle
Summary: Years from now, a scrapbook helps Zach remember how the years have treated him and everyone else. Oneshot.


_A/N: I've always wanted to write a story like this. Every time I read a story like this I always imagine my own. I've also noticed that I like to write about Zach. I don't really know why. The italics are flashbacks. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this one and I would very much appreciate it if you would leave a review. Happy Reading! Thanks!_

_Looking Back_

Surprisingly enough, the whole team had stayed together. Well not as a _team _but as a family. As the family they had become after several years of being together. They had kept in touch. No one was allowed to fall off the map. The others would not let them.

Dr. Zach Addy was looking at a scrapbook he had gotten many years ago for Christmas. It was from Angela. She and him would get together – more her forcing him – and add to the scrapbook. That was the first Christmas that Brennan had had nothing bad to say about the holiday. It was probably three years after Cam had joined the team and then, surprising everyone, including herself, she joined the family. It was a rocky start causing the forming family almost to be lost completely. It was not until close to a year after she joined that she became part of the family.

_"Merry Christmas, Zach!"_

_Zach looked up from the remains he was working on to find Angela standing there holding out a wrapped box. This confused him. "I thought we were having the Christmas party tomorrow and that's when we were doing gifts."_

_"We are," said Angela simply still holding the box out to him._

_"Then shouldn't you wait until tomorrow to give that to me?"_

_"No, I want you to have it for tomorrow."_

_Zach was still confused but he took the package anyway and opened. It was a large empty book. Zach looked up, "Thank you?"_

_"It's a scrapbook. You put pictures and stuff in it to remember it. Come on and we'll get started. Then we add again after the party tomorrow."_

_"But-"_

_"Don't worry, you're bones aren't going anywhere. Now let's go!"_

The family already consisted of Brennan, Angela, Hodgins, Zach, and Booth. And that was pretty much in the order that they joined the family. Brennan and Angela became best friends. Then Hodgins somehow weaseled his way in. Then Brennan got a grad student: Zach. Booth, of course, was allowed in because if he was left out Brennan probably would have been killed earlier by one of the many crazies she attracted. None of them took longer to be accepted than Cam though. Not that it was her fault. She and Brennan got off on the wrong foot and it went downhill from there.

As Zach was looking at the scrapbook, he was never really sure when she was allowed in their family but he noticed it after he got back from his brief stay in Iraq. It was no longer awkward for her to be with them as it had once been. After he returned Zach realized how important his unconventional 

family was to him. And he to them. There was a picture of them a couple days after he got back and Cam looked like she belonged. And she did.

_"Come on, let's go out to dinner," said Angela while they were all lounging around and talking._

_"Why?" asked Zach. He had just returned from Iraq and they were discussing anything from why he came back to what Brennan was writing for her next book._

_"To celebrate!"_

_"What are we celebrating?" asked Brennan confused. Her computer had not alerted her to any birthdays._

_"Zach's return."_

_"Oh," said both Brennan and Zach together._

_"That sounds like a great idea, Angela. I'm willing to go," said Cam._

_Booth laughed, "You're always ready to eat!"_

_"Am not!"_

_With Booth and Cam arguing and Brennan asking Zach about the remains he encountered there everyone stood and walked to Booth's SUV. It was a tight fit but they were all comfortable with it and they went to Zach's choice: the diner._

By the time another year had passed, Hodgins and Angela were married. Zach was allowed to continue to live above Hodgins' garage but knew that both Angela and Hodgins would prefer it if he moved. So he looked for a place. Six months after he started looking he found a place he sort of liked. Just before he made the decision on whether to buy it or not, he and Brennan almost got blow up. Again. Then Angela asked him to stay and Hodgins backed her up. He ended up staying there for another four years, until he found his own wife.

Zach turned the page to look at the picture on that page. It was a picture of Brennan, Booth, and Angela a year after that particular bomb. It was taken after a particularly long stay in the hospital for Brennan. She had been in a terrible car accident that had nothing to do with a murder or a case and everything to do with a drunk driver. She was in the hospital for almost a month. For the first week of that she was in a coma. The drunk driver had been killed in the accident. If he had not been though Booth probably would have killed him. Zach knew because with Brennan out of commission _he _had to work with Booth. That was not an enjoyable month for anyone. Nor for the two more weeks Brennan was told to stay out of the field. In the picture Booth and Angela were supporting Brennan who had dropped a crutch when it had gotten caught on the curb. Brennan was pale but happy to be out of the hospital. Booth looked worried and Angela looked amused.

_"Guys, please stop hovering! I can walk on my own. This is not the first time I've had to use crutches," said Brennan trying to walk with two crutches and push Angela and Booth away from her at the same time. It did not turn out to well. One of her crutches got caught on the curb and she would have fallen except that Booth and Angela grabbed her arms._

_"Yeah, I can see how well you walk by yourself," teased Angela._

_"Let's just get you inside," said Booth with teeth gritted._

_Cam laughed in front. "That will be a nice picture! Booth you look so happy in it."_

_"You took a picture?"_

Two weeks after that picture was taken, the first day Brennan was allowed out into the field, Booth asked Brennan out. She agreed. It took almost three years for them to get married. In that time both Zach and Cam found soul mates and were married. Cam was first. It was a man by the name of Joe Pauly. They were married a year and a half after meeting. Two days after they were married Angela gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, Nicolas James Hodgins. Zach married Sarah Frath six months after Cam's wedding. Another eleven months passed and a day apart Sarah gave birth to a girl, Rachel Hannah Addy, and Angela had their second child, also a girl, Caitlin Temperance Hodgins. Booth and Brennan had been married for two months.

Unfortunately their marriage had ended their partnership. Brennan got a new agent who was a surprisingly familiar face: Sully. He had returned years earlier from his boat trip but had not dropped by until he was assigned liaison to the Jeffersonian. Booth got promoted to Cullen's position. Cullen had retired shortly before then.

_"Dr. Brennan, there is an FBI agent here looking for you."_

_"Thanks George. It's probably Booth's replacement. Send him on back," said Brennan hanging up the phone. She continued working until she heard a knock on her office door. "Come in."_

_"Hey, Tempe."_

_Brennan looked up, "Sully?"_

_"I guess congrats are in order."_

_"What are you doing here?"_

_"I'm your new partner." He smiled at her._

_She smiled back._

Zach tuned another page. It was a picture taken of all the kids. There were the Hodgins – Nick, Kate, and Emily, the Addies – Rachel and Johnny, and the Booths – Parker and Christine. Cam never had 

any kids. Zach never knew why. He remembered that the picture was taken the day before Parker had left for college. Nick, the oldest besides Parker, was eight.

The picture that was next to the one of the kids was one of the entire group. All fifteen of them. It was the last picture before the group began to fall apart. If Zach remembered correctly – and he was certain he did – less than a month after this picture was taken Cam was diagnosed with breast cancer. Just over a year later the cancer took her. On the next page was a picture of the girls: Brennan, Angela, Cam – in a hospital bed without any hair, and Zach's wife Sarah. After Cam's death, her husband Joe lived only another two years. He died in an accident at sea. He loved to fish and apparently the fish won the last time. Zach realized that was a terrible thought and quickly moved on. 

_Angela and Sarah had taken over the hospital room. There were flowers of every kind and lots of balloons and pictures of all the kids. It was a very happy looking place if you got past the machines. Unfortunately Cam, on the bed, was only a shadow of what she had once been. The chemo had taken her air and the disease had taken much of the rest of her, but she was still fighting._

_"Come on, Jack! Take a picture of us girls. Then Zach can put it in his scrapbook!" said Angela enthusiastically. _

_"You are still keeping up with that?" asked Brennan. Zach nodded._

_"Alright, on the count of three. One. Two. Three."_

_Everyone smiled. Even the men that were not in the not in the picture. Everyone was happy even with Cam having an IV sticking out of arm and a machine recording her heartbeat and other vital bodily functions. _

_Snap. _

The next few pages were just birthday parties and anniversaries. Nothing that Zach really managed to remember. There were just too many birthdays, fifteen a year. Then Zach turned the page to find the last Christmas at the Jeffersonian. It brought up feelings that he did not want to feel. The next March the Jeffersonian was bombed.

Brennan and Sully had been tracking a serial bomber. The bomber had generally been blowing up businesses that had women in a powerful position. Women who were owners, managers, or partners. He had hit several law offices, small businesses, and even one restaurant. He had bombed a total of twelve places, killed twenty-six people, and injured over fifty more before he went for the Jeffersonian.

It was lunch time and Sarah was over to take Zach out and Booth was there to give Brennan a hard time about working late. Everyone was up on the on the platform. The bomb was placed at the door and was strong enough to collapse the structure of the roof, not just blow out the glass. The bomb sent everyone to the hospital, at least over night. Three days after the explosion, Sarah died because of her injuries. The next day Angela died. By the end of the month everyone was out of the hospital and 

Hodgins was in a wheelchair, Booth was short a spleen, and Brennan had her right leg completely rebuilt. The total dead were Angela and Sarah, six lab techs, and two interns. Brennan, Zach, and Sully were the only ones left at the Jeffersonian two months after the bomb. Hodgins left. He could not take working at the Jeffersonian anymore and retired. He had enough money after all. It took over a year to rebuild the lab and Hodgins donated enough to pay for half of the construction.

After Angela died Zach had vowed to never add to the scrapbook. And he did not, for more than two years. He kept a stack of pictures that would otherwise be in the scrapbook though. Two years after that though he and Kate had a talk. She was onlythirteen but she knew about the scrapbook and also that he was not adding to it anymore. She convinced him that it was not good to stop and after that it became their thing. Zach and Angela's daughter continued the tradition.

_"Hey, Uncle Zach?"_

_"Yes, Kate?"_

_"Why don't you add to the scrapbook anymore? I know you don't."_

_Zach sighed and looked down, "Because that was a thing your mother and I used to do together and without her I don't know how to do it. She gave the scrapbook to me but it was really her thing."_

_"Well," Kate paused. She really did not know what to say. Then, "How about if I do it with you?"_

_Zach thought about that for a minute, "I think Angela would have liked that."_

There was a picture in the scrapbook of the leftovers of that tragedy. It was taken three months after everyone was out of the hospital. Parker was home. He returned when he heard. He had graduated from college the previous May, returned to D.C., and joined the FBI like his father. He took a leave of absence to take care of all the kids. Nick was thirteen. Rachel and Kate were eleven. Johnny was nine, Christine was eight, and Emily was seven. Parker had his hands full.

There was a picture of the kids at that time. Everyone looked happy but if Zach remembered correctly it was because they had just gone out for ice cream. Zach wondered what the kids were doing now. They were all grown and most of them were married. They visited him all the time and now someone came by every day to 'keep him company' but sometimes Zach still got lonely.

Zach turned the page again. It was one of the remainder of the team. He, Brennan, Booth, and Hodgins were at Parker's wedding. It was four years after the explosion. Everyone looked happy but Hodgins still did not have the usual spark in his eyes. Below this picture was one of the kids, except Parker of course. On the following page was one of the bride and groom and below that was one of the whole group. Parker married a nice girl who was also in the FBI. Zach remembered the day he met her. She was shy yet confident. He was impressed when she almost kept up with him. He had noticed by that time that very few people could keep up with him but she had done the best of any of them.

_"Well, this is the beginning," said Booth._

_"What do you mean?" asked Brennan. Zach and Hodgins did not really seem to know what he was talking about either._

_"I mean that Parker is the first to get married. Pretty soon everyone else will and then we'll be old and alone."_

_"We aren't old!" said Brennan._

_"That's true, but the rest of what Booth said is true," said Hodgins, thinking._

_"My god. Our kids all grown up . . ." said Brennan. All everyone else could do is nod. _

The next picture was the last taken of Brennan. She was smiling in the photo with her first grandchild, Parker's first born. A month after the baby was born Brennan was killed by the suspect in the case she was working on with Sully. Sully was also killed. He died trying to save her – he never did settle down with anyone but he did stay in the FBI. Unfortunately, he died in vain when as back up was coming, including Booth, she was shot. She lasted long enough to tell Booth she loved him before dying.

Booth spent the next eight years tracking the guy who killed her. Zach helped out and even Hodgins looked over some things to help. When they finally found him, Booth managed to kill him but at the expense of his life. Thankfully Christine was grown and out of the house to college. 

Zach and Hodgins were practically inseparable for the next ten years and somewhat of a mystery to the younger generation. They were the only two left after all. Then Hodgins had his first heart attack. He survived but to Zach, who over the years had actually developed a sense for feelings, looked as if he almost wished he had not. The years had been rough on them both, but especially rough on Hodgins. Six months later though, his next heart attack took him and Zach could see the hint of a smile on his face when he found him.

Now Zach was the only one of his unconventional family left. It had been five years since Hodgins had died and Zach was still holding on. His health was failing and he was alone. He refused to go to a nursing home. But he was in some way happy. All of the kids came to visit him now and last Thanksgiving was at his house.

Zach turned the last page. It was one of him. He was alone in the picture. It was taken as he sat on his front porch. He was smiling but that was because everyone was over and the grandkids were in the front yard playing. There were sixteen of them. The smile did not quite reach his eyes but after everything that he had been through, who could blame him. He had been through a lot.

_"Uncle Zach! I'd like you to meet the newest member of the family. This is Alyson," said the youngest Hodgins, Emily._

_Zach looked up at the infant and said, "I heard you had another one. Wow, she's beautiful."_

_"Thanks Uncle Zach," said Emily smiling. Then she got quiet and asked, "Are you okay?"_

_"I'm great!" said Zach with that smile that did not quite reach his eyes._

He closed the scrapbook and leaned back in his chair. He thought about everything that had happened. He's been thinking about that a lot. He closed his eyes and put his feet up. That's how Rachel found his a few hours later when she came by to check up on him. She carefully lifted the scrapbook and called the family. She looked down at her father and saw a hint of a smile on his face and knew he was finally where he belonged. 

_I hope you enjoyed reading. I'd love a review. Until next time!_


End file.
